The duel between the candidates for the US vice presidency begins with a squabble between Republicans and Democrats. After Donald Trump revealed that his running mate will be Ohio Senator JD Vance, television channels have rushed to try to organise a debate between him and the US vice president, Kamala Harris, who in principle will be the candidate to repeat in the post alongside President Joe Biden.
CBS had offered three dates, one for July 23, next week, and two others on August 12 and 13. Harris took the first step by agreeing to debate on the 13th. Initially, Republican National Committee co-chair Lara Trump hinted that there would be no problem. “I think that [Vance] “I would be more than happy to go ahead with the debate,” he said. “And I don’t see any reason why I wouldn’t. I think it’s important. Traditionally, we’ve always had a vice presidential debate. We’d love to see that.”
However, the Republican campaign has taken a step back on Wednesday, arguing that it is not so clear that Kamala Harris will be the vice-presidential candidate. The Republicans are thus picking at the wound of the Democrats, who are divided over the convenience of Joe Biden running for re-election. The president said in an interview published on Wednesday that he would consider renouncing re-election if a medical indication advised it, although without seeming to consider that scenario as probable. Later, it was learned that he has tested positive for Covid, which is why he has had to cancel a campaign event with Latinos in Las Vegas (Nevada).
Republicans have suggested that Biden will not be a candidate, but that his place will be taken by Kamala, the front-runner should the president step aside. “We do not know who the Democratic vice presidential nominee will be, so we cannot set a date before their convention. Doing so would be unfair to Gavin Newsom, JB Pritzker, Gretchen Whitmer or whoever Kamala Harris chooses as her running mate,” Brian Hughes, a spokesman for the Republican campaign, said in a statement.
Democrats have criticized that stance. “Donald Trump is the person whose campaign said it would debate ‘anytime, anywhere,’ and who chose JD Vance specifically for his debate skills,” Harris campaign spokesman Brian Fallon said in a statement.
“Now, all of a sudden, on the heels of a damning new leak showing his support for a nationwide abortion ban, Vance is backing down from a debate against Vice President Harris, who has spent the last two years championing reproductive freedom,” the spokesperson added. The spokesperson was referring to a CNN report that revealed that in 2022, JD Vance called for a national abortion ban, stating in newly discovered audio that he would like “to make abortion illegal nationwide.” Vance added that he was “sympathetic” to the view that a national ban was necessary to prevent women from traveling across states to obtain abortions.
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“This debate has been going on for two months. If JD Vance is not willing to defend the Trump-Vance record on the debate stage, he should say so,” the Democratic statement concludes.
The campaign for the November 5 elections is very much marked, precisely, by the debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump on June 27 in Atlanta, organized by CNN. It was the president’s disastrous intervention in that debate that fueled doubts among Democrats about the advisability of keeping him as a candidate. The Democrats plan to nominate him online in advance before August 7, but there is resistance among the party’s congressmen to leave the nomination for the convention on August 19 to 22, as is usually done.
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